Thanksgiving Reflections

  Some Thanksgiving reflections as we navigate the end of November. Hope you have your turkeys and have planned your feasts accordingly. Don’t forget watching football on the menu—three NFL games on Thursday and one on Black Friday. Plus a whole slate of important college matchups and traditional battles will be contested over that time. With a ton of games leading up to and afterwards in all sports. 

So I was wearing a New York Jets sweatshirt and hat yesterday. In two separate instances, individuals made comments about my attire and the woes of the team this season and in the past. Similar statements were elicited by my wearing a New York Yankees cap after they lost the World Series. 

Pride goes with team loyalty, I guess. But I am not alone in receiving both grief and sarcasm for my sartorial choices for the teams I root for. 

I bet a whole lot of people in Philadelphia who wear 76’ers paraphernalia are hearing it in some fashion from the not so loving people of the City of Brotherly Love. After all, the team is mired in a 2-13 start, with star guard Tyrese Maxey out due to injury, new pickup Paul George looking miserable and Joel Embiid using a plethora of excuses to underperform when he opts to play. 

Things don’t look a whole lot better for their co-tenants in the Wells Fargo Center, aptly named for a bank with a dubious past history. The Philadelphia Flyers haven’t really chased glory since the 1970’s when gap-toothed Bobby Clarke led the Broad Street Bullies. 

But if you are a Ursinus College football fan, there is absolute glee in Collegeville. The Bears made the NCAA Division III Football Championships as a wild card. The Centennial Conference headquarters in Lancaster must be euphoric over this. 

There’s a lot of noise from those who root for “America’s Team,” the Dallas Cowboys. Speculation runs rampant about what owner Jerry Jones will do in the off season once he fires the current head coach, Mike Mc Carthy. Will he bring in Bill Belichck, the most decorated coach in pro football history? Or will it be a former Cowboys player named Deion Sanders who would like to package his quarterback son as a first round draft choice in the 2025 NFL Draft and thus be “lured’ to Arlington to right the ship? Of course, that leaves incumbent QB Dak Prescott in limbo as he mends from season-ending hamstring surgery.  

Dallas? Drama? Am I having a flashback? Who shot J.R.?

Yet conversely, the fans in Kansas City are proud to wear the jerseys of the two teams in town. That’s because the Royals are on an upswing after resurrecting the team around Gold Glove shortstop Bobby Witt, Jr. along with a cast of hungry players who may have performed at peak levels. 

Then there are the Kansas City Chiefs. You know the story. Mahomes. Kelce. Andy Reid. Taylor Swift. While the Chiefs finally lost when they traveled to Orchard Park, New York and were humbled by a very good Buffalo Bills team led by their star QB Josh Allen, the guys clad in red, white and yellow with some black trim have been a mainstay in the top tier of NFL teams. 

Moreover, the University of Kansas Jayhawks basketball team is ranked #1 and the football team knocked Brigham Young University from the unbeaten ranks in the Big 12. Plus Kansas State has good squads in those two sports.

Yes, small market Kansas City fans have a lot to cheer about. For them, it is a heartland feel good story. 

Things are looking up in the Motor City. Perhaps not with the Big Three auto makers. And maybe not with the University of Michigan post-Jim Harbaugh or at Michigan State in football. 

Their Lions are for real. They sit atop the NFC with only one loss. Jared Goff is having an M.V.P. season. The Tigers came from nearly dead in baseball to clinch a playoff spot and  win a series. Pitcher Tarik Skubal was the unanimous choice as the American League Cy Young Award recipient.  

Yes, the once-proud Red Wings and Pistons have a ways to go before they cross over from below .500. At least they aren’t mediocre. Detroit may be going through another renaissance. 

How about a big market like Los Angeles? Well, minus the Orange County baseball team, as Ducks sit at .500, a lot better than the Angels played this season and a much greater improvement for the hockey team from Anaheim than this time last year. 

Meanwhile, the Dodgers are coming off a recent World Series victory. A lot of Dodger blue is seen around town. For sure. 

Meantime, the Lakers are sizzling, especially at home. Sure, they have Lebron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura.  All stalwarts. Now they have this scoring weapon named Dalton Knecht who spent five years playing college ball and set a rookie record for three point baskets made in a game. If this continues and the Golden State Warriors maintain their torrid pace, ABC will have a Christmas Night prime time bonanza.

Plus the Kings are currently in the final Wild Card spot in the NHL Western Conference, although it is early. And the Clippers have taken to their new digs—the beautiful Intuit Dome—and are basking in a win over the aforementioned Golden State Warriors. 

While only at .500, the Rams are just one notch behind the Arizona Cardinals for first place in the NFC West. The other guys in SoFi Stadium—the Chargers—sport a 7-3 record heading into the Harbaugh bowl, where brothers Jim and John lead their teams against each other since they met in 2013 when John’s Ravens handed Jim’s 49’ers the franchise’s first Super Bowl loss. 

UCLA basketball is good again. USC women’s team has All-American JuJu Watkins starring. UCLA and USC clash on the gridiron for the first time as members of the Big Ten; if the Trojans win, they will secure a bowl spot and have Notre Dame coming to town in a week. 

Tinsel Town is a good place to be if you are a sports fan. It’s sunny out there right now. With rain in the forecast next week, I hope it doesn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the Angelenos for their teams. 

Contrastingly, Chicago is seemingly like the weather as I write. Snowy, cold, windy. November gales off of Lake Michigan and from the North. 

It hasn’t been the greatest sports year in ChiTown. The White Sox set a MLB record for futility with 121 losses. Fans stayed away from Guaranteed Rate Field. The only things guaranteed there were losses and difficulty parking adjacent to the stadium. 

Up on the North Side, the Cubbies have morphed into lovable losers once more. While the NL team which calls historic Wrigley Field its home did manage to end just over .500, they weren’t really very relevant in the Wild Card chase. Maybe they need to bring back the 2016 World Series team, the one which broke the 107 year drought, and reconstruct it as best as possible. I know that first baseman Anthony Rizzo is available, as the Yankees did not extend him an offer, making the popular player in both cities a free agent. 

The once mighty Bulls sit once more at the bottom of the Central Division. The days of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson bringing NBA crowns to their fans is long gone. Zach LaVine and Lonzo Ball do not quite have the same fierceness as those Hall of Fame stars. 

Then there are the Blackhawks. Last season, the team with one of the best uniforms was bad. Not much better this season. At least the fans have top overall draft choice Connor Bedard to watch. 

Like the Bears fans have Caleb Williams to celebrate. Lots of work to be done there to make the Monsters of the Midway scary again. 

It ’s going to be a cold winter in Chicago. Even if it is just a bit over halfway through Fall. 

Then again, the Jets are in total disarray. Owner Woody Johnson has now fired the coach and GM. He is disgusted with the performance of very old QB Aaron Rodgers. 

While the Giants have promoted third-stringer Tommy De Vito to try to reprise his role of last year where he showed some positivity for the woeful G-men. This is the end of the unsuccessful Daniel Jones era. Giants fans are relieved and anxious for the next step. 

The Mets finished good. The Yankees still had a very successful season and are in the mix for Juan Soto to return—along with a number of other suitors trying to seduce him. 

Forget the Nets. This is a Knicks city. Adding Karl-Anthony Towns to the lineup will pay dividends. The Rangers are a tick from third place in the Metropolitan Division, behind the New Jersey Devils and the Islanders are lurking just out of playoff contention. Gotta love the Tri-State area. 

One more thing to celebrate over dinner. UConn’s Geno Auriemma became the winningest coach in college basketball history on Wednesday night. The Nutmeg State is the home to college basketball right now, with the UConn men attempting a three peat and Geno’s women targeting #1 South Carolina. Not bad at all for a kid born in Italy and grew up on the streets of Philadelphia. He made women’s college basketball way more exciting before Caitlyn Clark arrived. 

As Thanksgiving approaches, for many, it is a time of happiness as we give thanks. Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your bird but don’t over do it! See you in December. 

Record-Setting?

  The NFL has reached the 10 game mark in its 20234 season. The Kansas City Chiefs remain undefeated—barely. KC leads the AFC. The Detroit Lions have one loss—barely. Detroit leads the NFC. 

Besides KC, the teams expected to be in playoff spots in the AFC had the season ended last week were Buffalo, Houston, Baltimore, and the LA Chargers. The surprises are Pittsburgh, in first place in the AFC North and Denver, the third place team in the AFC West. 

Yet both those teams merit the spots they are in. Pittsburgh has become a dynamic offensive team with Russell Wilson fully recovered from his training camp injury. The defense is very strong, making the Steelers a legitimate force in their division. 

However, the Steelers have a daunting schedule to finish the season. In a scheduling oddity where they haven’t played any intra-division opponents until this late in the season, Pittsburgh plays division foes Baltimore, Cleveland and Cincinnati twice. 

If that isn’t daunting enough, the non-division teams they play are Philadelphia and those Kansas City Chiefs who come to Pittsburgh on Christmas Day, a Wednesday, four days after the Steelers travel to Baltimore for a game in the Ravens Nest. 

Should Pittsburgh survive this gauntlet, then they are a most worthy playoff team. For on this past Sunday, it took a fortuitous spot and a booth review of a fourth down play by Washington to secure a one point victory over a very good Commanders squad. 

Denver gets the too bad, so sad award for losing Sunday’s game in Kansas City. The Broncos, behind rookie Bo Nix and quarterback, fought the Chiefs hard. Hard enough that the Broncos were in position to win the game and knock KC from the unbeaten ranks with a game-ending field goal. Almost a chip shot.

Except that KC found a way to block the kick and preserve the victory. Good for the Chiefs, a possibly deflating loss for Denver. Going forward, the schedule is not light. If they need a win to get into the playoffs on the final Sunday, it would be over KC at Mile High.

Denver’s main competitors for the last Wild Card slot are Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Miami. All currently have below .500 records and are in search of their identities. 

In the NFC, two other NFC North teams besides the Lions are in line for the playoffs. Minnesota and Green Bay are legitimate teams with good quarterbacks at the helm. Even the Chicago Bears, experiencing growing pains and coaching problems, can be spoilers in such a top heavy division. 

Meanwhile, Detroit continued to build on the successes they have had with Jared Goff at quarterback. To me, he is the NFL M.V.P. thus far. Goff engineered a fourth quarter comeback in Houston which resulted in a significant road win over the AFC South leaders. 

Philadelphia and Washington are the class of the NFC East. Dallas suffered a great loss with Dak Prescott out for the remainder of the season, but the Cowboys are a flawed franchise, beginning with the owner, Jerry Jones. The New York Giants are as big a flop as the New York Jets, with whom they share Met Life Stadium. 

Out West, it is the surprising Arizona Cardinals who have gotten everybody’s attention. Beating the Jets soundly at home looks really good; Marvin Harrison, Jr. is the real deal at wide receiver. I don’t think the Cardinals are a fluke. A lot of football has to be played—San Francisco, Seattle and the Los Angeles Rams all remain in contention for the division title, although the Rams looked bad on Monday night at home against the Dolphins. 

In the NFC South, Atlanta leads the pack. As Kirk Cousins goes, so goes the Falcons. The schedule does the Georgia team no great favors. While the Giants, Raiders and Panthers are to be played, so too does ATL have to travel to Denver this weekend and visit Minnesota and Washington while hosting the Chargers and Panthers. Should the Falcons fall from their perch, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers behind Baker Mayfield and New Orleans with a healthy Derek Carr might return to its early positive form and make a run for the NFC South crown. 

The highlight games for this weekend include Washington at Philadelphia on Thursday night; Baltimore at Pittsburgh early on Sunday then the Falcons at Broncos and a titanic rematch in Buffalo between Kansas City and the Bills. All important contests. If you are a pro football fan, then this is a good weekend to watch good football. 

Turning to college football, most schools have two or three games to play before conference championships. Four of the top five are Big Ten schools. #1 Oregon has only a road trip to Wisconsin before ending the season at home versus Washington. Barring the unthinkable, the Ducks should be in Indianapolis to play the winner of Indiana and Ohio State, to be played on November 23 in Columbus. All three, plus Penn State are virtual locks for the twelve team playoff. 

By record, Texas is the best team in the SEC. Perhaps that is true. Tennessee may disagree with that, along with Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. If Georgia gets by Tennessee on Saturday in Athens, they have an easy opponent in UMass prior to hosting Georgia Tech, which knocked off ACC leader Miami last weekend, in a rivalry game. Ole Miss is on the road at Florida in The Swamp and meets Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl.  Alabama has Mercer and Auburn at home and goes to Norman to face a downtrodden Oklahoma. 

It is Texas which clearly has it the roughest. This weekend is a renewal of an old and bitter rivalry as the Longhorns go to Fayetteville to take on the Razorbacks. A decent Kentucky comes to Austin. The finale is at College Station where the 7-2 Aggies have been frothing to finally play their rival which they left behind in the Big 12. A&M could dash Texas’ SEC title hopes; the ‘Horns should make it through to the playoffs. 

Notre Dame appears to be a lock for the playoffs, although they tangle with unbeaten Army on November 23rd in South Bend. Miami needs to recover from its shocking loss; I don’t know the tie breakers in the ACC, but SMU is in control and it is between Clemson and the U as to who plays in the Charlotte title contest and which team maybe makes the playoffs. 

BYU and Colorado appear headed to a showdown in the Big 12. Coach Prime, a.k.a. Deion Sanders has resurrected the Buffaloes and will possibly be heading to the NFL with his son who will be a very high draft pick. 

Other worthy playoff teams might be Boise State and Washington State. Both play Oregon State in the final two games, so the Beavers might determine which team goes to the playoffs. 

There is a long way to go. It’s going to be an exciting finish. The selections might raise an eyebrow or two. Then the playoffs will begin and the real fun will start. 

As the Emirates NBA Cup is underway, it is time to notice the start of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics. All red hot out of the gate, with the Cavs unbeaten and the others have no more than three losses. Phoenix may have some difficulty with Kevin Durant out of the lineup. Ditto OKC with big man Chet Holmgren sidelined with a fractured tailbone. The Lakers are 4-0 at home; Lebron James is playing like the best player in the world not named Victor Wembanyama, who merely scored 50 points almost effortlessly on Wednesday night for San Antonio. 

I won’t get into the rest of the league. Too mediocre right now. 

Finally—someone give the Winnipeg Jets a saliva test. Entering Thursday’s game in Tampa, the Jets sported an incredible 15-1 record. Whether it is the start of the season or any stretch during it, that is an amazing feat. 

But isn’t playing the games what it is all about—record setting?

It's All About The Money

  Money. The root of all evil, it is said. Can’t live without it. Or as the late sage Yogi Berra once said: “If you get hurt and miss work it won’t hurt to miss work and they give you cash which is just as good as money.” I bet AFLAC paid Yogi handsomely to be himself. And remember, older New York metro area residents, the WABC radio commercial for Dennison, The Men’s Clothier, located in Union, New Jersey—“Just bring money. Money talks, nobody  walks…”

It is the almighty dollar which was front and center in the recent Presidential election. Inflation has been hurting almost every pocketbook in some capacity, and the populace let be known that they don’t like how much it costs to live on a daily basis. Except that there is a monied class which seems unaffected by the cost of living. 

That would be the athlete and the team owner. Somehow they seem to be surviving okay. Together. For now, until the next labor negotiations, when invariably there will be the specter of a strike when the players want more of the pot and the owners are unwilling to cede a dime of their vast riches. 

A few things provoked this rant. First, in baseball, this is free agency season and the number one topic is where will mega-talent Juan Soto be landing and which team will be anteing up the big bucks for his services. The lineup of suitors is a hierarchy of the rich franchises—the Yankees, who Soto played for in 2024; the crosstown Mets, with perhaps the richest owner in the game in Steve Cohen, who is willing to break the bank and sign the biggest fish to make the biggest splash; Toronto a long shot, is supposed to be proposing a mega deal; and other interested parties such as the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers, suddenly money-infused Baltimore Orioles with a rich and very determined ownership; and even his first club, Washington. 

Let me say this—this courtship is madness. The sum of $700 million dollars over 10 years for a baseball player is patently absurd. I can’t wait to learn how much, if not all of it will be guaranteed, if his super agent Scott Boras needs to convince the feeding frenzy how worthwhile their deal is going to be. 

Last year it was Shohei Ohtani who was going to become a very wealthy ballplayer when his time in Anaheim was up. We now know that the Dodgers spent a ton of money, wisely deferred by Ohtani and his agent, to secure a World Championship. For this is the here and now, and whatever sum will be paid to the Japanese slugger in the future will have been well worth it. It brought a championship in the first year. 

But let’s look a little closer at Ohtani. He’s already two surgeries into his career—the first  was a major elbow procedure, the second one he has had for his UCL, which foreclosed him from pitching or playing the outfield this past season. Then in the World Series, Ohtani partially dislocated his left, non-throwing shoulder in a headfirst slide into second base. This week he had surgery to repair his labrum as a result of the injury, and simultaneously had a procedure done to his foot. 

While the Dodgers have the belief that Ohtani will be ready by Spring Training, will he suffer any setbacks and will this further delay his return to pitching? Could it be that Ohtani is partially damaged goods right now and that even if he rehabs well, his long-term future may have become a bit more murky? 

There are so many players who end up injured and have to go under the knife. “Tommy John” surgery, named after the pioneering pitcher who resurrected his career after a devastating arm injury, has been a godsend to baseball. It is almost routine that big league arms undergo such surgery. What is more frightening is how many have had the surgery out of necessity to try to make it to the next level—whether it is the pros or college—to fulfill a dream.

I look at another great player—Mike Trout. The Angels went way beyond their budget to lock up the New Jersey native with a lucrative deal. Since Trout inked his contract, he has been on the Injured List far more than on the field slugging home runs. He may have been the best player in baseball at the time LAA locked him up, but now he too is a question mark as to how well he will perform as he goes, let alone remain on the field and help make the Angels respectable if not competitive. 

So now Soto is the chosen one. He didn’t outperform Yankees teammate Aaron Judge this season; Judge is the presumptive American League M.V.P. Yet Judge’s $360 million deal over 9 years, averaging $40 million per year, is going to be paltry compared to Soto’s fleecing some franchise. 

Hal Steinbrenner, principal owner of the Yankees and son of the legendary George, who made his club into a powerhouse through free agency spending and shrewd drafting, has to come up with a figure he can live with which he thinks General Manager Brian Cashman can negotiate a deal to keep Soto in Yankees pinstripes. If that is possible, given the greed of Cohen and the bargaining power which Soto yields in this crazy marketplace. To satisfy the Yankees fans who are rabid after the collapse of the team in the 2024 Fall Classic. 

But what if the Yankees took a different tack and reduced the payroll slightly and bringing in talent through trades and some free agency. This would actually make the team stronger and reduce the already brutal luxury tax (actually called the Competitive Balance Tax) enacted on the teams which overspend compared to the smaller market teams where revenue is not as great as in New York, LA, Chicago or Atlanta. Play Judge in right field where he does not burn out like he did in center field in 2024. Put Jasson Domínguez in his natural spot in center field. Even think about bringing back Alex Verdugo to patrol left field—he would love to play more in the Bronx. Shore up the pitching and garner more power at first and third base. 

Let Steve Cohen blow through his billions and put the bulls eye squarely on his team. If the Yankees can work towards the future and not have constant payroll issues, then I am all for it. 

What also threw me was that it is renewal time for my New York Jets season tickets for 2025. Talk about continually overpaying for a very diminished product while there is only one Super Bowl trophy on display at team headquarters in Florham Park, and that goes back to the 1969 season. I fortunately didn’t foolishly spend for a seat license for the privilege of sitting in the lower bowl of the sterile Met Life Stadium. 

While it is my unfortunate goal to be a season ticket holder for 50 years, which will be reached in two years, it galls me to see that the franchise is worth $6.9 billion and I am paying a robust amount to support the operating expenses of $138 million. And the team once more has come out flat despite the promises of quarterback Aaron Rodgers to bring the team to the Super Bowl. Which simply isn’t happening given the number of teams which are better than NYJ in the AFC, where there is a team in Kansas City that is undefeated and has a QB going to be  paid $450,000,000 over 10 years, with a $10, 000,000 signing bonus and over $140,000,000 is guaranteed. 

From time to time I remind myself of the cost of watching these athletes perform. Whether it is in person, which costs plenty in ancillary amounts for food and beverage, travel costs and clothing to wear in the changing seasons. (I cannot wait until I complete my trips to all 30 MLB franchises with a visit to iconic Fenway Park; that Boston trip is going to cost me a lot of money just with the ridiculous ticket prices with Fenway’s limited capacity) Or the home viewing on cable or streaming channels which adds plenty to the monthly expenses. Again, this is plain absurdity. 

Is the revenue sustainable? We as a nation have faced inflation and avoided a recession or, even worse, a depression. But what if this economy suddenly tanks? What will happen to the pay for these stars in all leagues—Lebron James and Steph Curry come to mind with bloated salaries—when the fans revolt over the costs of attending a game or watching exclusively on Amazon or Peacock? 

And don’t think that the colleges are immune from this money train. They overpay coaches while underpay professors. Players receive scholarships but are enriched by name-image-likeness payola. 

I was tracking the cost of a ticket for this weekend’s Washington-Penn State game in 

State College. Three weeks ago a nosebleed seat was going for nearly $350. Until the Nittany Lions lost to nemesis Ohio State. That same ticket is now available for $95. 

Rutgers, now fighting for bowl survival, plays at home Saturday when suddenly hot Minnesota comes to Piscataway. A ticket can be had for $5.00. And it is more likely that somebody will purchase the $95 seat than go to Piscataway for $5.00. which was the cost I paid as a senior for last week’s F&M-Kean football game. Watch for the increasing number of empty seats at most NFL games—a sign of the unaffordability of attending one game for everyday people. A ticket to MSG for a Knicks or Rangers game on the secondary market is astronomical while the New Jersey Devils continue to inundate me with requests to buy ticket packages because they need the revenue. 

The perspectives are skewered. The competition for the entertainment dollar has reached an entirely new level. People are far more comfortable watching movies at home, yet they will willing travel to Canada to watch Taylor Swift because a ticket is far more reasonable. When sanity will return is anybody’s guess. 

Moneyball was the nickname of a sabermetics-based philosophy which allowed the Oakland A’s to become highly competitive and thrive against the big market opposition. Over 20 years later, the A’s are still starving the payroll while gambling on a major windfall when the team moves to Las Vegas.

The movie was fantastic. The premise was fine. Yet we are in a different environment which will have to self-destruct for the good of sports. It’s just a matter of when. 

For now, it’s still all about the money.